The present invention relates to a rotary cutter and more specifically relates to a suspension for the support wheels of flex wing and rigid body rotary cutters.
Rotary cutters are often towed across rough terrain which results in the cutter bouncing such that an uneven cut results, with high shock loads being transmitted to the machine and towing tractor. It is known practice to equip rotary cutters with wheels mounted to axle arms that are cushioned by coil compression or cylindrical rubber springs. Stiff and/or short deflection springs are utilized to prevent excessive bouncing, thus sacrificing softness which is required to reduce high dynamic loading. Additionally, the known suspension arrangements have not been able to compensate for various wheel reactions across the width of the machine and still maintain acceptable performance, this problem being especially acute with flex wing cutters where, due to the weight of the drives and their supports, the center axle carries higher loads than the wing axles.
According to the present invention, there is provided an improved suspension arrangement for a rotary cutter.
An object of the invention is to provide a suspension arrangement that results in softness, without excessive bounce, so as to reduce shock loading into the mower and tractor while maintaining an even cut.
A further object of the invention is to provide a suspension which is easily adjustable for compensating for additional loading.
A more specific object of the invention, is to provide a suspension arrangement which achieves the objects mentioned above by utilizing bellow type air springs having inherent damping.
Yet another specific object of the invention is to provide air springs, as mentioned in the immediately preceding object, which are arranged so as to independently cushion each axle so as to optimize the ride on each machine segment.
A further object of the invention, is to use a shock absorber in conjunction with each air spring provided according to one or more of the previous objects.
These and other objects will become apparent from a reading of the following description together with the appended drawings.